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The Second Jungle Book: Mowgli and Baloo
The Second Jungle Book: Mowgli & Baloo is a 1997 American adventure film starring Jamie Williams as Mowgli, with Roddy McDowall and Billy Campbell in supporting roles. It is a live action adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book (not based on The Second Jungle Book, as its title would suggest). The film was adapted for the screen by Bayard Johnson and Matthew Horton.23 It was shot in Kandy Mountain, Sri Lanka in July to September 1996 and features some well known Sri Lankan actors like Wijeratne Warakagoda, Sunil Hettiarachchi and Raja Sumanapala. Plot The Film Starts with Mowgli (Jamie Williams) being chased by two large chimps (sent by King Murphy) to capture him. Mowgli is saved by his friends: Baloo the bear, Grey Brother the wolf, and Bagheera the panther when they scare the two chimps away. Mowgli and Baloo play in a pond splashing with the elephants after the chimps leave. The next morning, Mowgli and Grey Wolf (like hunters) set off on a trail. As Grey Wolf hunts, Mowgli walks to a river in which Shere Khan the tiger appears scaring Mowgli into the river. Shere Khan walks away plotting to get revenge on Mowgli. Harrison (Bill Campbell) who's on a train in the jungle collects things. Chuchundra (David Paul Francis) is on the same train. His pet monkey Timo is tamed to be a good monkey. However the train almost hits Mowgli who's on the track. The people (who are circus scouts) capture Mowgli. Mowgli's friends arrive to the train too late to save Mowgli. With the help of Timo, Mowgli escapes from the train. Chuchundra complains for Timo to come back, but Timo pays attention to helping Mowgli escape. While on the train roof, Chuchundra's shirt gets caught on a tree branch and Chuchundra falls on the track after the train leaves. At the train station, Harrison has an idea to capture Mowgli: Buldeo could help him by tracking him down. Buldeo (Gulshan Grover) who is actually Mowgli's uncle plans to kill him. Buldeo tricks Harrison by agreeing to track Mowgli down. However Karait (Dyrk Ashton) a snake charmer joins them on the search. His snake is named Kaa. Meanwhile, in the jungle, Mowgli finds a record player. It plays Mowgli's parents getting killed by Shere Khan. Mowgli also finds a white hat. Timo spies a tent and unhooks it letting the two chimps out. The chimps ride on a wagon over the edge of a cliff hanging onto a tree branch (dangling over a river) on the way down. The three trackers run into Chuchundra on the track while riding on a rail-cart and Chuchundra joins them for the search. The next day, one of the wolves in Mowgli's family rips the white hat in half and kicks Mowgli out of the family. Mowgli however breaks the law of the jungle. Bagheera scares Timo away when roaring at Mowgli. Mowgli then searches for Timo along with Baloo. On the search Mowgli finds a necklace. The next day, Mowgli and Baloo arrive at a ruin city that the Monkey People lived. (The City was abandoned many years ago by men). Meanwhile Baloo is caged by one of the chimps and Mowgli looks for Timo himself. The four trackers arrive at the ruin city. Mowgli climbs a tree and falls asleep. Karait sends Kaa to pull him off. Kaa does and Mowgli is caught in a net by the hunters and taken to the campsite. Chuchundra finds the necklace Mowgli wore and realizes Timo has been through some danger. When Buldeo pets Mowgli, Mowgli bites his finger. Buldeo's scream comes from the distance and Shere Khan hears. Shere Khan walks to the campsite attacking Chuchundra. Mowgli uses a torch to scare the tiger away. The rope holding Mowgli (in which Harrison tied to Mowgli) snaps and Mowgli chases Shere Khan away. Buldeo uses his jacket to pull Mowgli away from running and almost kills him using a knife. Harrison comes to Mowgli's rescue and puts him in a cage. Karait locks him in. It is night and Mowgli howls for his friends. Baloo (who escaped from the dungeon he was caged in) rescues Mowgli at dawn. Chuchundra wakes up and is scared of Baloo causing his butt to burn in the campfire. Mowgli and Baloo escape just as the other men wake up. Mowgli and Baloo run to the ruin city where Mowgli finds Timo and meets King Murphy (Roddy McDowell). However King Murphy wants Mowgli to be the new king but Mowgli refuses and runs off with Timo while King Murphy and the chimps are in a food fight. Mowgli and Timo run through a hole in the wall in another room. The way outside is on the ceiling. There are cobras in the room that are trying to kill them. Meanwhile the four men arrive in the city and split up to find Mowgli. Buldeo meets King Murphy who calls the chimps and Buldeo uses his gun to try and kill them and wastes his bullets. Harrison finds Mowgli and gives a rope to help Mowgli out of the room. Timo climbs out and pushes Harrison's hat in the room on a cobra. Mowgli has a tough time even getting on the rope because of the cobras. Once he does a cobra snaps at the rope nearly causing Mowgli to let go. He still manages to get up but before he can get to safety Buldeo arrives and pushes Harrison away. He then uses his rifle to squish Mowgli's hand but Mowgli gets his hand out. Once he does Buldeo gets out his knife and cuts the rope and Mowgli falls back into the room. Buldeo stays to watch out for the cobras and that the poison of the cobras will kick in after five minutes and after that Mowgli will die. Mowgli pulls his head away from a cobra which snaps at him and misses. The two men start a fight using knives as weapons. Buldeo wins kicking Harrison down some stairs and giving him an injured leg. Buldeo almost kills Mowgli with a gun when Baloo and Bagheera arrive. Buldeo falls down a hill while Bagheera chases him away from Mowgli. The two chimps wear Buldeo's belt and coat (what Buldeo threw at Baloo and Bagheera). Harrison picks up a stick so he can walk. Seeing Bagheera chasing Buldeo, Harrison walks back to Mowgli who is still desperately trying to avoid the cobras who are crawling around him. After being attacked by the wolves, Karait walks to Mowgli to help him (the wolves thought Karait was trying to kill Mowgli). Karait uses Kaa to help Mowgli out of the room with the help of Harrison (who Mowgli gives the hat back to). Chuchundra finds Timo and Timo is reunited with Chuchundra. Karait leaves with Kaa. King Murphy tells the chimps to shoot the cannon (where Buldeo is hiding) to honor Mowgli. Buldeo is shot out of the cannon into tree branches where Shere Khan finds him and eats him. Mowgli then decides to run with the wolves saying goodbye to Timo, Harrison and Chuchundra. The Film ends with Mowgli running with the wolves. Cast *Jamie Williams - Mowgli *Billy Campbell - Harrison *Gulshan Grover - Buldeo *David Paul Francis - Chuchundra *Dyrk Ashton - Karait *Roddy McDowall - King Murphy *Cornelia Hayes O'Herlihy - Emily Reece *B. J. Hogg - Colonel Reece *Amy Robbins - Molly Ward *Raja Summanapala - Buldeo's Servant Reception The film received negative reviews from critics. Differences with the literature *Baloo is portrayed as an American black bear. *Rikki-Tikki-Tavi characters Chuchundra and Karait are in this film, but are humans rather than a shrew and a snake. *Kaa is a Burmese python and a pet. *Mowgli isn't kidnapped by the Bandar-Log, but the pet monkey Timo is. *Mowgli's first contact with humans happens on a train instead of a village. *Major characters like Hathi, Chil and Meshua are left out completely. *Buldeo and Mowgli are biologically related. *The Bandar-Log have a human-leader named King Murphy, though like the monkeys, he does want Mowgli to become the Bandar-Logs' king. *Buldeo and Shere Khan actually meet face-to-face (and Khan supposedly kills Buldeo). Trivia *Strangely, the Bandar-Log have two chimpanzees among them, but chimps are not native to India. This could be a reference to King Louie in the Disney-version, who's also a non-native ape-species (except in the Live-Action copy of the cartoon film). *While Grey Brother appears, it is unknown if the other wolf-characters do too, though the one who drove Mowgli out of the pack could be Akela. *Shere Khan actually kills Mowgli's parents, albeit prior to the film, but he never dies. *A female elephant and her calf have a small spot in the film. They could be a reference to Winifred and Hathi, Jr. of the Disney-version. *While Buldeo is still a villain, he's made the brother of Mowgli's father, making him Mowgli's uncle, and it's possible he intended Mowgli's parents to be killed by Shere Khan in order to steal his family's wealth. Gallery External links Category:Films Category:Live Action Category:Jungle in Indian films